Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour
Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour is the fifth instalment in the Modern Combat franchise. It was unofficially announced on September 21, and was released December 6th, 2012. Gameplay Gameplay in Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour is similar to that of Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The player can control their character with a virtual joystick on the left side of the screen, while looking around the game's environments is controlled by swiping or dragging on the screen. Players can also crouch, throw grenades, use the weapon's iron sights, reload, change weapon, pick up different weapons, knife enemies, mantle obstacles and shoot using buttons and prompts on the touch screen. The knifing feature has changed compare to the previous games. In the game in which when a player comes close to an enemy, the fire button switches to a melee button. Graphics has significantly changed compared to Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation. Ground sliding has been significantly shorter compare to sliding in Fallen Nation. Military Support has completely changed as a new feature to the franchise. The military support has been reduced to 3 during multiplayer gameplay but is also customizable in the armory. There are 9 available kill streaks in military support. In multiplayer, players now buy weapons instead of unlocking them when they rank up. Players can also jump over any recognised obstacle which is also a new feature in multiplayer. Plot Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour takes place in the year 2037.User blog:EndZone45/I KNOW WHEN MC4 IS SET! MUST SEE The game starts when the US send a large army to a summit to secure it. While Page is underway to Hawaii, Corporal Joel Blake arrives at the Red Summit with a small squad of US soldiers, led by Lieutenant James Walker, the protagonist of Fallen Nation. They storm their way through the beach, and receive word that another allied team is pinned down by the SGS Militia. The team make their way to them, and discover that the president of the United States has been taken hostage by Edward Page, the client of SGS. The game then switches to the perspective of Edward Page (a supporting antagonist from Fallen Nation) two days prior to the invasion of Hawaii, attacking the WCIB in Seattle as a distraction for the large attack on the C3 summit in Hawaii. Saunders Global Security (SGS) is a group of mercenaries who are hired for the security of the summit. After Page and Everett Saunders plant bombs on the WCIB, they are extracted via helicopter, just as the building explodes inches below their feet. Anderson (a supporting character in Fallen Nation) is dispatched into a devastated Seattle following the attack on the WCIB, along with several other AFTER operatives, to head to a police station to retake the area from hostiles. Chief (likely Warrens) tells AFTER operatives that terrorists have been spotted all over the city. Making his way to the WCIB, Anderson, along with Caydan Phoenix (the main character of Blackout) rescue the AFTER operatives that were being held hostage by SGS. As Chief tells Anderson that terrorists are using vans to transport hostages, he leaves Phoenix and the secured hostages, continuing by himself. As Anderson battles his way onto the street dominated by SGS forces, a van screeches from a corner and onto the street. Anderson kills all of the SGS forces, and catches up with the van, largely caved in by debris from a section of the tunnel that has collapsed. An SGS soldier leaps out from behind a piece of fallen debris, and pulls out a knife. However, Anderson retaliates and shoves the knife into the SGS soldier's abdominal hemorrhage. Just before death, a sputtering SGS soldier says that the attack on Seattle was all a distraction for Edward Page to abduct the US President in Hawaii. The game switches back to the perspective of Edward Page, as he takes the president hostage in the Iakoo Beach Resort, also in Hawaii. As Page assists other SGS soldiers, he and the SGS soldiers successfully place a bomb inside the resort, with the intention of slowing down the relief forces. Afterwards, Page ruthlessly plants IEDs all around the resort, in another last-moment attempt to destroy any hopes of the relief forces. Phantom Unit however, fights through waves of mercenaries and debris, closely following behind Page. While they disarmed the bomb, Page had almost reached his helicopter. Despite making it to the helicopter pad, they were unable to rescue the President. Intel confirms Everett Saunders (a former US Special Forces soldier who served in the same unit with Page) is somewhere in the city of Barcelona, so Walker, Blake and Lieutenant Downs (a major NPC in Black Pegasus and Fallen Nation) are dispatched to find him and extract information on where Page may have taken the president. They locate Saunders and try to arrest him, but Blake needs to throw him off a balcony to save Walker, and Saunders is thought to be dead. The team is then sent to the SGS base in South Africa. Upon attacking the base, Blake is knocked out of his helicopter and forced to fight his way through the base alone. He rescues the president and then reunites with Walker and Downs. The president retrieved information indicating that Page is holding up in a base in Antarctica. The team is dispatched, and discover that Page plans to fire a bioweapon capable of killing about 4 billion people, in an effort to "restart" the human race. Summary #* Page and Saunders attack the WCIB and steal drone network codes. #* Meanwhile, SGS forces take over the C3 summit and take the president hostage. # Page travels to Hawaii, Saunders travels to Barcelona. # The US army attacks the C3 summit. # Page takes the president to the SGS base in South Africa. # Phantom Unit is sent to arrest Saunders in Barcelona. # Phantom Unit takes back the hard drive with drone codes from Saunders. # Phantom Unit reports that Saunders has been killed in action. # The US army attacks the SGS base. # Page flies to the Unified Citizens base in Antarctica. # Blake secures the president. # Phantom Unit is sent to the Unified Citizens base to take it out. # Anderson is killed by Page. # Page is killed by Blake. # Blake blows up the base. # Saunders is revealed to be alive. Missions * Red Summit * Unified Terror * Aftermath * New World Order * Threatcon Delta * Manhunt * Critical Path * Terminus * Hammerstrike * Operation Shogun * Cold Vengeance * Extreme Sanction Announcement Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour was unveiled September 21st during an event in Tokyo. A small teaser premiered, and later, on weapons, maps, game modes, grenades and military support were slowly released on the Modern Combat website. Development The game has a multidimensional perspective. In other words, the player can play from the perspective of both the protagonist(s) and the antagonist. A new character, Joel Blake, and both Downs and Anderson from Black Pegasus and Fallen Nation return, making them the most frequently seen characters in the entire franchise. Walker also returns from Modern Combat 3. Edward Page returns as the antagonist. All animations have been re-done using motion capture technology. Polygons have been increased, allowing for smoother in-game objects. The game runs on the Havok engine, allowing for considerably advanced graphics, animations, and scripting. Weapons Just like Fallen Nation, Zero Hour features 21 weapons, ranging from assault rifles, SMGs, handguns, shotguns, sniper rifles, and rocket launchers. Unlike Fallen Nation, SMGs are now secondaries and shotguns are primaries. Multiplayer Gameloft completely revised their multiplayer service. Additions included a tactical movement system, a first for Modern Combat, which allows the player to mantle over obstacles, a feature which was previously only available for Campaign modes. They also added a wider variety of attachments available for weapons, allowing for full weapon customization (excluding camos). A rifle can have as many as 5 attachments at once, one from each category (scopes, muzzles, grips, magazines, as well as stocks). The player can scroll through the menu, while watching the weapon change in real-time when an attachment is selected. Military Support now has to be purchased (once) in the Armory, and is set specifically for each weapon kit, unlike in Fallen Nation, whereas the player had all available during the match. For Wi-Fi only games, all weapons, attachments, weapon kits, specializations, grenades, and military support are automatically unlocked, so the player can use all weapons, attachments, etc. without buying them. Reception Just like the games that came out before it, Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour was met with positive reviews. Critics praised the game's visuals, gameplay, and multiplayer. However, several reviewers noted that the Modern Combat series felt "stagnant". The iOS version holds aggregate scores of 82 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on seventeen reviews. However, since the introduction of Modern Combat 5: Blackout, Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour's reviews have gone up. Many community members agree that Modern Combat 4 is superior to MC5.Citation needed Updates Since its release in 2012, Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour has received two updates with two pieces of downloadable content: Content Pack * Tygr X3 - An automatic SMG, the Tygr X3 boasts excellent accuracy despite it's small size, making it one of the deadliest SMGs available. * Compakt-665 - An automatic assault rifle, the Compakt-665 is a solid multi-purpose weapon offering the perfect balance between damage, rate of fire, accuracy and mobility. Meltdown Update The second update "Meltdown Update" was released on June 19, 2013 and included 2 new weapons, 3 maps and a new specialisation. * SFS CTK-12: A semi-automatic sniper rifle with a 10 round magazine. * 40mm Thor GLP: A single-shot Grenade launching Pistol. * 3 New maps ** Fracture ** Extraction ** Backfire * 2 new game modes (returning from Fallen Nation) ** Bomb Squad ** Destruction * New perks ** Ammo Pack ** Dedication ** Readied Shot ** One Last Thing ** Gun Expert ** Sentry ** Paragon Destroyer Gallery MC4-Home screen.jpg|Home screen of Modern Combat 4 since the Meltdown Update MC4-Red Summit beach.jpg|The beach in Red Summit MC4-Hover Drone-Opening Cutscene.jpg MC4-Ground Drone Red Summit.jpg MC4-Fighter Jet overhead.jpg IMG_0594.jpg IMG_0585.jpg IMG_0602.jpg Page using human shield.jpg IMG_0611.jpg Two Hostiles on Roof.jpg SGS Mercenary.jpg City Hall building.jpg MC4-Hammerstrike comm tower.jpg Trivia * Various MC3 weapons have been seen in many pictures on the website. * Various MC3 animations have been copied into Modern Combat 4. * This is the first game in the series to have four playable characters. Those being Carter (drone specialist), Edward Page (antagonist), Joel Blake (Phantom Unit soldier) and Anderson (AFTER operative). * This game, so far, has the most appearances of playable characters in one game, including from previous and later games, being 7 characters (Anderson, James Walker, Carter, Joel Blake, Edward Page, Caydan Phoenix, and Warrens (possibly)). * Lieutenant Warrens probably returns in the mission Aftermath. He is not playable and is only heard. * Modern Combat 4 is the only game in the series to use the Havoc physics engine. * Modern Combat 4 is currently the last game developed by Gameloft Montreal in the series. * In the multiplayer dev diary, different reticles for optical attachments were seen, indicating that customisable reticles for optics could have been a choice early in development. * Also for note in the multiplayer dev diary, if one looks at the scene where the camera shows the computer with the weapons on it 7 seconds into the video, at the bottom of the monitor that there was another sniper rifle called the LSW-1, based off the DSR-1 sniper rifle, and that it was supposed to be a DLC weapon. * Modern Combat 4 is the only game in the series not to take place in an Asian country. External links * In-game music on Soundcloud References